BB #33 – Oldest Trick in the Book

So this Brain Bubble popped: Just what is the oldest trick in the book? You know how the villains always say, “Ah ha, Mr. Bond! You just fell for the oldest trick in the book!” Admittedly, your smarter, better educated villains say, “Ah ha, you just fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book,” and that lets them off the hook.

But there can be only one oldest, so just what is the oldest trick in the book? Is it the one with two porcupines, a duck’s egg and a large jar of marmalade? I know that’s a really old trick, but I’m not sure it’s the oldest. They say that prostitution is the oldest profession,.. is there any connection there?

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In the year 10580 B.C.E. the Babylonian king, Hammurabi, reigned supreme over the Mesopotamian deserts. On February 30, during a long speech by Irhemhotep, he stood on Shamadad’s right, and reached over and tapped him on the left shoulder. As a result, Shamadad looked to his left, where no one was standing. All would laugh, as decreed by law, or else be condemned to read Oscar Wilde quotes everywhere. Immensely proud of his ingenuity, Hammurabi ordered these endeavours to be recorded in cuneiform on a clay tablet. This tablet was the first page in a small ‘tricks’ archive, which would later become ‘The Book’.